Enhancing Prisoners' Quality of Life and Compliance-Related Behaviour through Procedural Justice

• In Event: Prisoner and Staff Relationships From International Perspectives

Abstract

Research has demonstrated procedural justice to be effective in a range of regulatory settings, including policing, taxation, and corrections. The aim of the current project is to examine the use of fair treatment and decision making (i.e., procedural justice) in establishing prisoner trust in correctional officers, improving the quality of prison life, and increasing prisoner cooperation with officer directives and compliance with prison rules. The project will utilise survey data collected from prisoners housed in two maximum security prisons in Queensland, Australia to understand prisoner experiences with correctional staff. It will be shown how procedural justice is linked to prisoners’ trust in officers, an increase in prisoner willingness to cooperate and comply with staff, and leads to enhanced prisoner quality of life. The project will have important implications for developing evidence-based best-practices for prison staff to more effectively engage with prisoners, as well as theoretically contributing to the procedural justice literature.

Authors

• Julie Barkworth, Griffith University

• Kristina Murphy, Griffith University

• John Rynne, Griffith University